Research Projects

Mound-builders of Uruguay

My dissertation was a multidisciplinary study combining both archaeological and palaeoecological data to examine the rise of early Formative societies in Uruguay, south-eastern South America. My Ph.D. dissertation was contextualized within broader anthropological concerns related to the emergence of social complexity, the significance of ritual and public architecture in intermediate-level societies and the role of human-environment interactions during the mid-Holocene. My investigation generated the first Late Quaternary palaeoclirnatic record based on pollen and phytolith analyses, documenting that the mid-Holocene (6,620 to ca. 4,040 bp) was a period of environmental flux and increased aridity. It describes the occupational history of the Los Ajos site from the creation of a household-based community integrating a centralized communal space during the Preceramic Mound Component (ca. 4,190 - 3,000/2,500 bp) to the Ceramic Mound Component (ca- 3,000/2,500 bp to the Contact Period), where Los Ajos acquired a strong public ritual character through the formatilisation and spatial segregation of its mounded architecture. During the Ceramic Mound Period, the site exhibited both internal stratification (inner versus outer precincts) and dual asymmetrical architecture in its central sector, which suggest the emergence of incipient social differentiation. This study also marks the earliest occurrence of at least two domesticated crops in the region: corn (Zea mays) and squash (Cucurbita spp.), showing that the early Formative societies adopted a mixed economy shortly after 4,190 bp. Collectively, these results challenge the long-standing view that the La Plata Basin was a marginal area by evidencing an early and idiosyncratic emergence of social complexity never before registered in this region of South America. My holistic approach to tackle anthropological questions bringing together data from the natural and social sciences has been largely influenced by my supervisor Tom Dillehay.